


I Bite My Thumb At You

by TourmalineQueen



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-28
Updated: 2014-04-28
Packaged: 2018-01-17 13:56:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1390240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TourmalineQueen/pseuds/TourmalineQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>From the Assassin's Creed Kinkmeme, the OP wanted bedwetting and blackmail and Shaun had to make Desmond cry, then there would be cuddles afterwards but sadly some of the requests squick me, so I changed it up a bit. So it's angsty fluff with a hint of humour.</p>
    </blockquote>





	I Bite My Thumb At You

**Author's Note:**

> From the Assassin's Creed Kinkmeme, the OP wanted bedwetting and blackmail and Shaun had to make Desmond cry, then there would be cuddles afterwards but sadly some of the requests squick me, so I changed it up a bit. So it's angsty fluff with a hint of humour.

**Disclaimer:** Ubi's toys, just borrowed for fun, not profit

*-*-*  


"Are you s _eriously_ sucking your _thumb_ , Desmond?" Shaun asked incredulously.

Desmond, startled, dropped his hand to fist by his thigh where he sat at the top of the stairs out of the Sanctuary, where he had been gazing at the drawing Ezio had left. He glared at the Englishman. Defiantly he raised his thumb back to his mouth and bit on the tip of his nail and used it to flick a droplet of saliva at Shaun.

"Did you just - Bite your - Seriously? Like the Montagues and Capulets?" Shaun sounded both surprised and amused.

"Shakespeare didn't pull it out of his ass, man. The Italians did that to demonstrate contempt," Desmond murmured, still irritable.

"God you are _**such**_ a baby, sometimes," Shaun chuckled, "you're aware that you're not Italian - or living in the Renaissance, right?"

"Just fuck off, man. I'm trying to not **_do_** stuff like this, and you're not helping!"

"Just fuck off? Nice potty mouth, darling. I quake in my boots at the power of your witty retorts. And I'm sorry Dessy-Diddums, but you were _sucking_ your _thumb_ when I came up here, and nobody does that past the first week of primary school," Shaun teased.

That struck a nerve, and Desmond physically flinched. Abruptly he stood and strode out into Uncle Mario's destroyed study, the sight of which brought a familiar tightness and ache to his chest and a pain that had belonged to Ezio, and Ezio had _no right_ to make _Desmond_ miss a man who had died five hundred years ago. Blinded by sudden tears, Desmond ran for the fresh night air of Monterriggioni.

Footsteps behind him indicated that Shaun wasn't finished with him. Well Desmond was finished with Shaun. Up the ivy-covered window he went, and further, using the lift to get himself well beyond Shaun's ability to climb, and away he ran, like a greyhound on a track, aiming for the town ~~he~~ _Ezio_ had loved so dearly.

"Desmond!" Shaun was yelling in the distance, but Desmond needed to be alone for now, and ignored him.

He meandered around the rooftops of the walled town, finally halting on the building that had once housed the Thieves' Guildhouse. _Ugo, Rosa, Antonio, Gilberto..._ Names and faces rumbled around in his mind's eye, Desmond looking at them with Ezio's fondness and the loneliness that came of having lost them all so long ago. Briefly Desmond wondered if he _was_ Ezio, somehow reincarnated. It would make no less sense than the Animus and the Bleeding Effect.

Ten minutes passed, and Lucy warned him about his tardiness and asked him to come back inside, another ten minutes and Rebecca asked him if he wanted to talk, or come back and work with Baby some more. Desmond ignored them both. The only reason he didn't remove the phone and throw it off the roof was the worry that whoever had left the red footprints around the Villa might find it and trace them with it.

He sat with his chin resting on his knees and his arms wrapped around his folded legs. Infrequently he'd swipe at his eyes with one hand or other to dash the tears on the still-warm tiles.. _Baby... I'll show **him** Baby! _ Desmond thought savagely. _I'd like to see **him** live other lives, and lose other families and friends, who he knows as well as - or better than - his own **blood** family and not turn into a whimpering infant_.

"Actually," Desmond said to the stars, "I wouldn't wish this on Shaun at all. He couldn't handle it."

"I can handle it fine. Don't let Rebecca tell you fibs about my having acrophobia. It's all lies. Filthy lies!" Shaun's voice preceeded his arms, head and the whole rest of him up over the lip of the roof.

Desmond watched warily as the researcher crawled gingerly up to collapse on the tiles beside him. Desmond noted clinically that Shaun was breathing far more heavily than the straightforward climb would indicate, and his shirt was dark with sweat. Desmond didn't really care.

"Actually, I meant **_t _ **his**__** ," said Desmond, waving inarticulately at his own head. "Not being sure if I'm now or then until someone speaks either English or Italian at me. And sometimes even then..."

"Yeah," said Shaun softly. "I know. I don't get it, and I wish I could relate, but... Yeah."

"No, Shaun ,you don't wish that. But it's - decent of you to say you do. And I'm not a baby," Desmond said.

"No," Shaun agreed, "you're not. But it's good to get a rise out of you - you know? When you got out of the Animus and didn't say anything, and just wandered up to stare at Ezio's bloody doodle? That scared me. I needed to get my Desmond back. So I did my usual brilliant job of annoying the Hell out of you. Only..."

"It went farther than you intended?" Desmond suggested.

"I guess I struck some nerve?" Shaun asked.

Desmond nodded. "You weren't to know I never had an education. Or, not a normal one."

Shaun's eyes widened in shock. "Jesus, Desmond -what?"

"And that's all I feel up to telling you tonight," Desmond said, firmly. "It's just the way I was raised, is all."

"No wonder you're so attracted to me," Shaun muttered, a hint of his usual snarky bravado coming through. "You know there's so much I can teach you."

"And I bet I can teach you a thing or two, too," Desmond grinned, then snatched Shaun's hand and took off running for a ledge he knew he could do a Leap of Faith from.

"Desmond? Desmond! Des-- Aaahhhhhhh!"

*-*

"Shaun? Dude, I'm sorry I made you piss your pants. I didn't realise you had a thing about heights."

"Acrophobia _**is**_ a fear of heights," Shaun replied through gritted teeth.

"I didn't know that. And you said it was a lie!"

"Oh, just - just fuck off, Desmond!"

"Such witty repartee!" Desmond teased, slinging his arm around Shaun's neck. "Come on, we'll figure out a suitably heroic story we can tell the girls on the way back."

  
*-*-*


End file.
